Rumors of an Heir
by argetangel
Summary: Is the Kou-kihi really pregnant with the heir to the Saiunkoku throne? Or is it just Shou Taishi and his meddling ways, AGAIN? Ryuuki/Shuurei.
1. Harassing the Palace Maids

**Chapter 1: Harassing the Palace Maids**

To say that Kou Reishin was furious would be the understatement of the entire history of Saiunkoku.

"What do you mean, 'The Emperor and the Kou-kihi spent the night together'?" he grit out, fury glowing red in normally dispassionate eyes. The maid was cowering; she could see why the Emperor himself was so afraid of the Civil Administration Department head.

"I… I…" She desperately willed the ground to swallow her whole. Of all people, why did it have to be _her_ who got interrogated by Chamberlain Kou? Reishin's gaze did not waver, if anything, it grew more intense, and his cheeks flushed with rage, as if her silent fear was conveying unspoken words. She inched back, shuffling step by shuffling step, praying silently that he would not notice the distance she was putting between them.

No such luck. She flinched, as her back pressed against the unforgiving wall, Reishin towering over her like an avenging god.

Biting her lip, the maid cast furtive glances to the length of the corridor, hoping with all her heart that some kind noble or other would miraculously appear and save her. Of course, no such thing happened, especially since everyone who wanted to live specifically avoided the corridor, where palpable death vibes emanated from the enraged Chamberlain.

"Answer me." His voice was sharp and brittle; any moment, the rage would consume him.

"A servant girl said she saw with her own eyes that… that… the Emperor had entered the Kou-kihi's sleeping chambers last night, and was in her bed this morning." If she had expected Reishin's anger to abate with her answer, she was sorely mistaken. If looks could kill, Reishin's would render a person to a blackened corpse.

"How. Dare. You. Spread. Rumors." Laser beams fairly emitted from his eyes; she felt trapped, and tears began prickling her eyes.

"But…it's true!" She had already moved as far back as the corridor width would allow. Her teeth sank even deeper into her bottom lip, drawing coppery blood.

"Ah! Chamberlain Kou!"

A miracle had appeared. Or a hallucination. Still, it was hard not to love Shou Taishi when he heroically rescued you from Kou Reishin's death glare, no matter that she had always thought of him as an irritating old man.

As Reishin's glare shifted from her to the amused old man, the maid slumped to the floor with relief, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Ahhh. You've made her cry. Shame on you, Chamberlain Kou." The old man chuckled, stroking his beard in delight. Sadly, his happy mood seemed to inversely influence Reishin, whose face turned even blacker with each passing second in the advisor's presence.

"You should be happy; the Emperor seems to have consummated his relationship with Kou-kihi. We can expect an heir soon."

"You old meddler. WHAT DID YOU DO?"

-

My first Saiunkoku fic. R&R :D


	2. The Protective Uncle

**Chapter 2: The Protective Uncle**

"I swear, I'll kill that sniveling brat, and that meddlesome advisor while I'm at it. No one messes with my precious niece!"

Kijin stared blankly at his best friend, who seemed to be ranting to no one in particular. Reishin ignored the lack of response from the sole other occupant of the room, and continued pacing, muttering murderously under his breath.

"…kill…idiot…lousy Emperor… pitiful excuse for a ruler…die…kill"

Kijin sighed, stunning features momentarily twisting into a scowl, as his time was steadily wasted away by the niece-obsessed Chamberlain.

"Why," his voice, deadpan and monotonous as it was, somehow managed to be laced with irritation, "don't you just bring it up with the Emperor? Or sniveling brat, as you prefer to call him."

_He should be terrified enough of you to cease all pursuit of your "precious niece"._

A beatific smile spread itself across Reishin's face, and the ever-present fan was whipped out. "Houju, your rare moments of intellect never fail to amaze me."

Reishin smirked as Kijin's hand trembled violently with barely-suppressed annoyance.

-

Kouyuu panted heavily, mouth hanging open, resisting the temptation to let his tongue roll out like a dog's. He mopped his brow, glaring accusingly at the walls all around. _This is the work of an evil spirit!_ He hissed angrily; stupid poltergeists seemed to think it was funny, constantly shifting the location of various departments and wasting his time.

He could have sworn that the Emperor's office was in this very corridor. Hell and damnation, whose bright idea was it to have all the corridors look the same?! He glanced around, checking carefully to make sure no one was in the vicinity, before shaking an outraged fist in the air. "Go away and bother someone else!"

It was a good thirty minutes later when Kouyuu finally collapsed through the doorway of the Emperor's office. He heaved a sigh of relief, which almost instantaneously transformed into hysterical panic-induced breaths, as the situation at hand re-registered in the forefront of his mind.

"Your… your Maj- Majesty!" Kouyuu gasped, and proceeded to incoherently warble to the confused Emperor, narration replete with vicious gesticulations and crazed expressions.

Before Ryuuki could ask Kouyuu to calm down, though, the aquamarine-haired scholar slumped down on the Emperor's imperial table in a dead faint.

-

Ryuuki and Shuuei stared at Kouyuu's prostrate form, one amused and the other somewhat frightened by Kouyuu's condition. Ryuuki was convinced that Kouyuu had had a fit, before collapsing to imminent death. Shuuei was convinced that Kouyuu was just exhausted from getting lost, _again_.

Therefore, Ryuuki paced up and down the room frantically, working himself into a royal panic, while Shuuei contemplated giving Kouyuu a blueprint of the palace as an early birthday present. Kouyuu would probably act insulted and snap at him, but privately weep with joy.

Kouyuu's head groggily rose from its uncomfortable position on His Majesty's desk (in their amusement/panic, Shuuei and Ryuuki hadn't thought to move him to a less compromising location), only to see said Emperor furiously contemplating aloud to call for the imperial physicians, and a dark-haired shogun smirking to himself and emitting low chuckles. Reacquainting his cheek with the table suddenly seemed like a very scintillating option, so highly disturbing was the sight before him. More so when one knew that a country lay on such shoulders.

Kouyuu gingerly rubbed his cheek, which was red from sustained contact with the desk surface, as he stood up. He stared at his still-pacing sovereign, and his self-amused friend, about to heave an I-am-contemplating-suicide-because-of-my-hopeless-situation sigh, when he recalled the _actual_ "hopeless situation".

"Your Majesty!" he yelped, "Reishin-dono is coming!"

-

Finally, chapter 2! :D How soon I update and how the plot goes depends on what you people say, so keep the reviews coming and motivate me. Much love 3


	3. The Chase

**Chapter 3: The Chase**

The finely furnished oak desk shook ever so slightly. "Is… is he here yet?"

Kouyuu silently shook his head from his position by the door, every now and then oh-so-inconspicuously poking his aquamarine head of hair into the corridor outside. When Ryuuki's trembling question repeated itself, however, he remembered that Saiunkoku's highly esteemed emperor was currently cowering under his large desk, and hence was unable to notice non-verbal gestures. He sighed, "No, Reishin-dono isn't here… _yet._"

Kouyuu shuddered, droplets of cold sweat beading at the back of his neck. As fearful of Reishin as Ryuuki was, the emperor really ought to be glad that _he_ hadn't been the one to overhear Reishin's raging fit to Chamberlain Kou Kijin. Reishin's temper was really something to be feared.

Shuuei was noticeably absent, having disappeared to supposedly call for assistance to defend the Emperor's life. Kouyuu suspected Shuuei was just trying to remove himself from potential crossfire. Forget having accepted the Emperor's flower, if pledging allegiance to the Emperor meant pitting oneself against a murderous Kou Reishin. If the increased rattling of the desk was any indication, given a choice, the Emperor would rather betray _himself_ than be cornered by Reishin.

It was times like these that made Kouyuu wonder how someone like Reishin was related to amiable Shouka and caring Shuurei.

Kouyuu's eyes widened in realization. Of course. That was it! _Shouka_!

-

In retrospect, it probably hadn't been a very wise decision to just dash down corridors, instead of attempting to blend in with the other officials around. Even with Ryuuki leading the way to the Archives (even when in a royal panic, Ryuuki knew better than to let Kouyuu _pretend_ he wasn't a direction retard), the influence of Kou Reishin reached far and wide.

Which explained how the Emperor of Saiunkoku and his Vice-Secretary of Civil Administration had been accosted by, of all people, the slightly less scary but creepier Kou Kijin. What a wonderful pair of comrades they made, the Chamberlains of Civil Administration and Finance, was Kouyuu's sardonically unvoiced thought. An opinion no doubt shared by countless others.

It didn't help that Kouyuu knew slightly more than others; namely the fact that Reishin was a lazy, malicious and manipulative genius who preferred to make crazy face masks for Kijin in his free time (he had stumbled over Reishin's workroom by accident, when trying to find his own room in the unnecessarily huge mansion) rather than aid his overworked department staff. That, and obsess over his older brother and niece, the latter being oblivious to Reishin's very existence. Kouyuu's shoulders sagged at the depressing state of affairs his country was in.

Not that Kouyuu had very much time to mull over his own disheartening thoughts. Not when eerie chuckling emitted from a distance he was less than comfortable with, coupled with an equally disturbing face that was streaked white, black and red.

Despite not having been tied up, Kouyuu couldn't move from his undignified position on the floor of the Finance Department. Finance Vice-Secretary Kei Yuri was nowhere to be seen, and somehow there was no other department staff in the vicinity. It seemed many preferred to keep their distance from the more-than-slightly-creepy Chamberlain.

Ryuuki, surprisingly, was still standing. "What is the meaning of this, Chamberlain Kou?" he demanded, using his best I-am-your-emperor-and-you'd-better-remember-that-I-have-the-power-to-behead-you-for-disrespect voice. With his back ramrod straight and face in a stern mask, Kouyuu could almost believe that the Emperor was totally unintimidated by his Chamberlain.

_Almost._

If not for the fact that Kouyuu heard the slight trembling undercurrent in Ryuuki's voice, or the fact that the Emperor was standing just in front of him, and Kouyuu could see the nervous twitch of his legs through the violet robe.

_He was Emperor, for the Seven Sages' sake!_ But then again, admittedly, Kouyuu would be scared of Kijin too, even if he were Emperor.

"Would you rather be caught by Reishin?"

Somehow, despite the obvious restrictions the wooden mask caused when it came to revealing facial expressions, Kijin managed to lace a smirk into his words.

At the mention of Reishin's name, Ryuuki's Emperor demeanor dissolved, and cold sweat started beading anew on his face. A reluctant "no" slipped past his lips, and he looked faintly green.

The Chamberlain of Finances laughed, a rich, throaty sound that his mask failed to distort, and had the Emperor and his aide staring at him in surprise. Who knew Kou Kijin was capable of sounding so…_ normal?_

The astonishment, however, was momentary. Breathless fear soon flew across the two visible faces in the room.

An impatient rap sounded on the doors, one that Kouyuu recognized well. Ryuuki may not have recognized it, but the voice that followed certainly was a very familiar one.

"Kijin, are you there?"

It was Reishin.

-

**AN: I really enjoyed writing this chapter – what with Kijin's creepiness and eccentricities, as well as the fear he strikes in people's hearts. And dorky!Kouyuu with his internal monologuing :D Though I wonder if I'm overdoing it sometimes; do tell me if the characters are too OOC :/**


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